Diplomacy To Be Used Toward Same Militaristic Ends

Much of the world has greeted the transfer of power from President George W. Bush to President Barack Obama with sighs of relief if not shouts of joy. Although President Bush won a few friends in a few countries - his administration aided India and Israel and kept good relations with China, for instance - most people in most countries were happy to see him go. Despite his administration's late turn toward diplomacy, President Bush was seen as too militaristic, unilateral, and arrogant in his approach to the rest of the world.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have voiced their intention to follow a very different strategy. Diplomacy is back in vogue, with Secretary Clinton planning to rely on "smart power." No longer will the message from Washington be: "You're either with us or we'll bomb you." A new age has dawned, when international relations, if not the planet, have begun to heal.

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Comments

[ajax2]

I don't believe Obama will engage in the same military diplomacy as GW Bush. One because he doesn't believe in it, and two because of the U.S.' economic collapse. World leaders seem more upset with the latter than GW's militarism. My guess is that there will be a slow but deliberate world wide movement away from the U.S. dollar standard.

[Rog49Thomas]

And this is surprising why?

[JPHR]

Bullying Bush had right-wing bloggers and think tanks demonize Putin for objecting in frank language at the Munich Security conference 2007 against this arrogant unipolar approach with a total disregard for international law and international institutions:

http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/2007/April%202007/0407keeperfull.pdf

Quite revealing was that Putin was rarely quoted directly, but one was very quick to accuse Russia of all kinds of imperialistic intentions, very often referring to USSR and KGB. Adjectives like resurgent were quite popular too. Sure Russia is no ideal democracy yet, but who has been recently roaming the world with its military more or less at will?